Readers' comments

The iconic French newspaper Le Monde is about to begin a new chapter of its complicated history. Last September, what remains France’s most influential paper changed hands (see previous Monday Note Le Monde’s escape velocity and story in NY Times’ DealBook).

Le Monde is now owned by a triumvirate: Xavier Niel, a telecom entrepreneur, provided the bulk of the €110m ($130m) injected in the venture; Matthieu Pigasse, head of Lazard France, and Pierre Bergé, co-founder of Yves Saint-Laurent fashion house. Now, as the paper prepares to replace its editor, the new owners’ turnaround operation faces tough challenges.

But, before we continue, a disclosure that might influence the way you read this column:
Over the last few days, I have been on the receiving end of feelers from both insiders and outsiders: they wanted to gauge my interest in Le Monde’s editor job. (None of these informal conversations directly involved the owners.) For reasons I’ll discuss towards the end of this note, I made it clear I wasn’t interested. Frédéric Filloux

French unions and government have killed their print media. The government almost edits the papers; it controls far too much. People will eventually realize they need a democracy without the enarques running everything.

French press has lot of default, principal is too much editors, writing articles not for readers, but for them. They missed internet, running to come back, only few with success. Modernization takes time.Using internet need strategy. You have to bring high quality content, not the same as our competitors, and find business with this content. You can have a look about Web Tv www.labourseetlavie.com as example. The editor Didier Testot produced more than 600 videos (interviews with ceo, assets managers..debate) not with a big team, not with a lot of money, but with lot of ideas and a brand strategy. Internet give this opportunity.

I don't understand why Le Parisien doesn't get more national and international respect and why everyone kowtows to Le Monde. I don't think I've ever read a controversial (to the French intellectual establishment) statement in Le Monde.

Le Parisien actually does investigative journalism and annoys the big guys. It's often the first to report some story that the newspapers all take up. It broke the Clearstream affair, the Péchenard affair, the famous "pauv' con" video of Sarkozy and so many others. Just a couple of weeks ago it reported that the government was planning to sell car registration records to the highest bidder.

In September Rue89, the blog of French journalists off-duty, wrote in relation to a possible purchase of Le Parisien by Dassault (which luckily didn't happen), "The Parisien at the moment shows its independence of political power, bringing out scoops on the left and the right." [Reste que Le Parisien-Aujourd'hui en France fait pour l'instant preuve d'indépendance vis-à-vis du pouvoir politique, sortant des scoops sur la gauche ou sur la droite]

Le Monde, I read it only to see what idées reçues are coming in and out of style.